On Saturday the 25th of November I visited The Hop Nation Brewery in Footscray, Victoria. This brewery was started by Sam,originally from Adelaide, and Duncan from New Zealand, with both of them having a history in wine making. While making wine, they were also home brewing beer in their spare time. They found they were entering their beers into home brewing competitions against each other and decided that they should start contract brewing as a way of moving forward. They did this while still working in the wine trade and Hop Nation Brewery was born.
A few years ago friends of theirs at Sawmill Brewing in New Zealand were expanding and thus selling the old brewery equipment. They took the opportunity to go over to NZ, purchase and dismantle the brewery, before shipping it back to Australia and rebuilding it here. The brewery equipment is about 35 years old and has been used by three breweries before this one. It consists of a 1500 litre brewhouse, three 1500 litre fermentation tanks, four new 3000 litre fermentation tanks and eight 1500 litre bright tanks. They also have some used oak wine barrels for ageing special beers, namely sours and imperial stouts.
It took a while to find the right venue for the brewery, but they settled on an old 1880’s building that was originally used as a candle and soap making factory. When this was happening, whale carcasses would be dragged up from the dock and boiled down for the tallow to produce the candles and soap in this building. It is put to much better use now making beer. They started brewing in the building just under two years ago and opened the bar about fifteen months ago. It is a great venue with lots of character and history.
The beers that I sampled were:
1. The Damned, Pilsner, 4.8% abv, this is produced with all NZ ingredients and has a golden colour and sweet malt and citrus aroma. It has a nice sweet malt initial taste and then a gentle fruit hop bitterness on a crisp finish. True to the style.
2. The Heart, Pale Ale, 4.6% abv, this has a golden straw colour and a sweet tropical fruit aroma. It has a great sweet fruity flavour and a mild bitter finish. Very easy drinking.
3. Barrel Aged Blonde, 6.0% abv, this has spent eleven months in Shiraz, Port and Sherry barrels and has a golden straw colour and sour Shiraz aroma. It has a lovely fruity flavour and a mild tartness. Nice!
4. The Fiend, Australian IPA, 5.4% abv, this was the first beer that they brewed, it has a golden colour and a sweet fruity aroma. It has a gentle sweet malt initial taste before a good fruitiness and a mild bitter finish.
5. The Chop, American IPA, 7.0% abv, this has a straw colour and grapefruit and citrus aroma. It has a wonderful sweet fruity flavour that stays on the palate and then a generous hop bitter finish.
6. Jedi Juice, New England IPA, 7.1% abv, this has a cloudy straw appearance and a sweet pine, hoppy aroma. It has a fantastic sweet juiciness on a lovely, resinous hop bitterness. Quite delicious!
7. Acid Head, Hoppy Sour, 5.5% abv, this is a collaboration brew with Frankie’s Pizza for Sydney Good Beer Week, it has a straw colour and a subtle sour citrus aroma. It has a crisp citrus taste that is refreshingly tart on a clean finish. Nice!
8. The Buzz, American Red Ale, 6.5% abv, this has an amber colour and a malty caramel aroma. It has a well balanced flavour of sweet caramel malt followed by a nice fruitiness on a mild bitter finish.
9. Porter, 4.8% abv, this has a mahogany colour with a dark head and a roasted coffee malt aroma. It has a lovely malt palate of espresso on a gentle bitter finish.
10. The Sturm, 5.0% abv, this is a collaboration brew with Jamsheed Wines and has a Pilsner malt base that is co-fermented with 200 litres of barrel aged Riesling and uses both lager and Saison yeasts and German hops. It has a golden straw colour and a malty, yeasty aroma. The flavour is of a smooth, Saison like taste that has nice buttery overtones on a clean, crisp, dry finish.
11. The Kalash, 10.2% abv, this is the 2017 version Imperial Stout that is aged in Port, Pinot Noir, Bourbon and Sherry barrels. It has a black appearance with a dark head and a rich, fruity, Port aroma. It has a wonderful, smooth, rich Port like flavour that is strong and delicious. Wow!
12. Le Garnet Sour, Brown/Red 1 year old, 5.5% abv, this is aged in Shiraz barrels and has a dark brown colour and a sweet caramel and sour Shiraz aroma. It has a sour taste of fruitiness and a tart finish but is very refreshing and enjoyable.
13. The Punch, Mango Gose, 4.0% abv, this has a cloudy straw colour and a strong mango aroma. It has a wonderful sweet mango flavour on a salty finish. Nice!
The Hop Nation Brewery are producing some really wonderful beers. They have a fantastic venue and I strongly recommend visiting them if you have the opportunity.
I would like to thank Aled and Matt for their hospitality when I visited.
